Going to see them 2/24/13 in Manchester NH. It's billed as a full Quadrophenia. They're old, daughter is of appropriate age, and she needs to see them live before they go (her first "real" concert was the Genesis farewell of 2007). I last saw them in 1989 in The Meadowlands and from the first chord they had 70+ thousand people in the palm of their hand. For connecting to the audience, it's the best show I've ever seen. I'm hoping the same magic happens again some 24 years later.

It starts as My Generation but then takes a 20 minute detour through everything in The Who catalogue up to early '71 or so. Had to pick the daughter up from jazz band practice just now and by serendipity this started on the Zune. Cranked the car stereo to almost-max and we both reveled in Keith & John trying to keep Pete from going too far with their usual success. We're seeing the rump end of The Who in 2/13 in Manchester, NH and I hope for my daughter's sake they can still bring it, even if for a short while.

Unfortunately.... I hear background noises that keeps repeating itself over and over and over and over and and and and and over over over [Smacks Self In Face].

Ohhh, its just someone watching the movie Rent. Wow, what a waste... everything. A play/musical (if you can call it that) about people who are poor, refuse to pay their rent (because that's OK) and have AIDS. WTF!?

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

(Yeah, I've been on a bit of a Buckethead binge lately... been filling in some of the holes in my Buckethead collection. Jeez this guy is prolific, he's released like a bazillion albums!)

Went and saw him in Victoria BC on Sept 17 for my 66th birthday. My son bought me tickets and gave me $100 for expenses, a hundred mile drive etc. We had a blast. My son nailed the good table for video recording and our bud John bought his nice mike and recorder setup for the audio. He is absolutely amazing.

Bought some CDs. Listening to Slabs and Malakai in heavy rotation in my 93 Lincoln Mark VIII. Love the JBL sound system. No base under about 100 Hz but tight and sweet.

Jerry & the boys (unfortunately, Donna is caterwauling away), May 8, 1977 at Barton Hall, Cornell University. Scarlet Fire (Scarlet Begonias > Fire On The Mountain). Nice soundboard with a bit too much bass, mixing notes state that dbX was the problem (unlike Dolby, dbX had no master reference voltage, so unless you have the unit that performed the encoding, decoding will be off).

I wasn't a big fan of these guys back when they were together in the '70s (or even for a couple of decades after, for that matter); but they've grown on me lately. I've opted to fill in the holes in my GG collection, and now have everything from their self-titled debut up through "Free Hand" (considered by many to be their last really good one).

If you're not familiar with them, they're kind of hard to describe... quirky experimental '70s prog rock, but with shorter songs (no LP side long epics, though there are plenty of tracks that clock in at over 6 minutes), and influences from medieval music.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Gentle Giant. Much like a temporal discontinuity in HHGTTG, they're a band you have to sidle up alongside of and let them catch you unawares. Definitely in the "advanced prog" listening category.

JBI: 15 YO Daughter was taking HS mid-terms last week. They're allowed MP3 players (anyone who takes the time to put all the cheat data into an MP3 player deserves the grade anyways) and she told me that she listened exclusively to Djam Karet as it was music relaxation but without words that would cause her to lose focus. She even likes Tales From a Topographic Ocean.

Captain Ned wrote:Gentle Giant. Much like a temporal discontinuity in HHGTTG, they're a band you have to sidle up alongside of and let them catch you unawares. Definitely in the "advanced prog" listening category.

Heh. Yeah, it only took 30-something years from the time I first heard them, to get to the point where I'm actually saying "Hey this is pretty cool!" instead of "WTF *was* that?!??"

It really did kind of "catch me unawares" too. I've had "Octopus" and "Free Hand" in my collection since practically forever, and re-listened to them once in a while (like every 3-5 years or so). I'd pretty much written them off as something I was never going to get into. But on a recent listen to "Free Hand" something finally clicked... guess they finally managed to worm their way into my brain. Maybe I've got a brain tumor or something.

Captain Ned wrote:JBI: 15 YO Daughter was taking HS mid-terms last week. They're allowed MP3 players (anyone who takes the time to put all the cheat data into an MP3 player deserves the grade anyways) and she told me that she listened exclusively to Djam Karet as it was music relaxation but without words that would cause her to lose focus. She even likes Tales From a Topographic Ocean.

At least I've done one thing right in my life.

I've failed miserably at getting anyone else in my immediate family to listen to prog, jazz/rock fusion, or "Euro-jazz" (in the vein of much of ECM's catalog). Wife and oldest daughter listen to pretty much anything but; son is into electronica; other daughter is into punk and folk-punk. Wife, oldest daughter, and son are at least OK with mid-period Rush, that's about as close as it gets!

At least I'm responsible for 2 other people in the world getting turned on to Djam Karet!

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Heading off on a slight tangent... now listening to the track "Thoughts" from the Spock's Beard "Beware of Darkness" album. Some of the GG stuff reminded me of this, so I had to add it to the playlist. Holy frikkin' crap, this almost *had* to be an intentional nod to Gentle Giant as one of their influences.

Everything's connected.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

Planet X is a side project of ex-Dream Theater keyboard player Derek Sherinian. While there's definitely a hint of progressive metal influence here and there, Planet X is really a fusion band at heart. On "Quantum" they ditched their original guitarist (Tony MacAlpine) and brought in Brett Garsed as his replacement; Allan Holdsworth (one of my all-time favorite guitarists) also guests on a couple of tracks, including the standout "Desert Girl".

Really enjoying this. Guess I'll queue up my other two Planet X albums onto the playlist; haven't listened to them in a while.

The years just pass like trains. I wave, but they don't slow down.-- Steven Wilson

On a completely different wavelength from my usual listening, I'm currently listening to Faunts' "Feel.Love.Thinking.Of", synth rock with some "progressive" moments here and there, but these labels aren't very right, they really deserve a listen, especially that their sound shifts quite a bit from one album to the next. Example: Faunts - Feel.Love.Thinking.Of

They gained notoriety when Bioware picked one of their longer/darker tracks, "M4 - Part II" as the end theme for Mass Effect. And by the way, that song is freaking awesome. Listen here: Faunts - M4 Part II (full version, radio single is much shorter and not as interesting).

I recommend this music to anyone, and especially the prog old-timers might like this very fresh take on old ideas.

There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(